Tuning-slide and stop for trumpets, &amp;c.



W. E. HIGGINS.

TUNING SLIDE AND STOP FOR TRUMPETS, 6w.

APPLICATION HLED JAN. 3!, 1914.

1,141,960. Patented June 8, 1915.

1H5 NORRIs PETERS co.. PHOTO-LITHQ. WASHINGIUN, u (I.

WILLIAM E. HIGGINS, 0F MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

TUNING-SLIDE AND STOP FOR TRUM PETS, 850.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 8, 1915.

Application filed January 31, 1914. Serial No. 815,595.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM E. HIGGINS, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tuning-Slides and Stops for Trumpets, &c.; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to trumpets and other musical instruments each having a tuning slide, and it consists in a simple, economical, novel and efficient adjustable stop combined with a tuning slide of a trumpet or other horn and with a guide-tube of the instrument in which a branch of the slide has play. The stop serves to determine the position of the slide with reference to a predetermined pitch of the instrument of which said slide constitutes a part, and my invention is hereinafter more particularly set forth with reference to the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims of this specification.

Figure 1 of the drawings represents a side elevation of a trumpet form of musical instrument provided with an adjustable sleeve constituting a part of my invention forming a stop for the tuning slide of the instrument when this slide has to be drawn from its closed position to obtain required pitches of the instrument, and which also serves as a stop permitting of said slide being moved instantly to another predetermined position for quick change of pitch of said instrument; Fig. 2, an enlarged partly sectional side elevation of a fragment of the instrument, and Fig. 3, a cross-section of a portion of the same on the plane indicated by line 33 in Fig. 2.

Referring by numerals to the drawings, 1 indicates the crock and 5, 5, the branches of the tuning slide of an instrument as aforesaid, this slide being shown provided with the usual saliva discharge-port valve 6, and with a brace 7 between its branches. Depending from the branch 5 of the tuningslide and rigid therewith, forward of a guide tube 8 therefor, is a stop-eye 9, and in screw-thread engagement with the stop-eye is a rod 10 that extends through the same into a screw-cap 11, but this screw-cap may be omitted and the rod may be suitably fastened to any suitable stop in rigid connection with the tuning slide.

The rod 10 is in free-sliding engagement with a sleeve 12, and the sleeve is mounted in a clamp 13 rigidly secured to the guidetube 8 aforesaid and having its jaws engaged by a controlling screw 11 Adjustable on the rod 10 adjacent to its rear end is a stop that may consist of a nut 15 run on a screw-thread of said rod, and a lock-nut 16 may be also employed on said rod. However the specific form of the ad ustable rear stop is immaterial, and the screw-cap 17 shown on the rear end of the rod 10 may be omitted.

The tuning slide is shown fully retracted, the sleeve 12 secured in the clamp 13 against the stop 9, and the stop 15 adjusted on the rod 10 in opposition to said sleeve to limit forward movement of said slide when the same is shifted to change the pitch of the instrument. When necessary to slightly lower the normal pitch of the instrument, the tuning slide is drawn outward from the position shown as far as may be necessary, after which the sleeve 12 is adjusted outward and secured in its clamp 13 against the stop 9, the stop 15 remaining set on the rod 10 to permit of correct further outward movement of said slide to put said instrument in another predetermined pitch.

From the foregoing it is to be noted that the single slide herein specified is adjusted for both tuning and quick change of pitch, this being an important advantage of my invention, and particular attention is called to the sleeve 12 adjustable in the stationary clamp 13 to abut the stop 9 when the instrument is tuned to slightly lower than normal pitch, as is frequently necessary, said sleeve preventing retraction of the tuning slide beyond a predetermined limit but not interfering with quick pitch-change movements of said slide.

I claim:

1. In a trumpet or other horn having a tuning-slide, the combination of said tuningslide and the guide-tubes therefor, a stop rigid with a branch of the slide, a rod attached to the stop, a sleeve in rear of said step and in which the rod is slidable, a stationary clamp in which the sleeve is adjustable longitudinally of the instrument, and another step adjustable on the rod back of said sleeve.

2. In a trumpet or other horn having a tuning-slide, the combination of said tuningslide and the guide-tubes therefor, a stationary clamp, a sleeve adjustable in the clamp longitudinally of the instrument, and a have hereunto set my hand at Milwaukee slide-actuating stop-rod having free sliding in the county of Milwaukee and State 01": engagement With the sleeve, the adjustment Wisconsin in the presence of two Witnesses. 10

of said sleeve serving to limit the adjustment l Vw E. HIGGINS. 5 of said rod and slide to one or the other of Witnesses:

two predetermined positions. H. E. OLIPHANT, In testimony that I claim the foregoing I M. E. DOWNEY.

@epies of this patent may he obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Gommissioner of Patents, Washington, I). G. 

